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WaltDisneyPOTCPrisonDog

The imprisoned pirates in Puerto Dorado.

"Lord Beckett, the prisoner as ordered, sir."
Royal Marines Officer to Cutler Beckett[src]

A prisoner (also known as an inmate) was an individual who was captured by another party and deprived of liberty against their will. This could be by confinement or captivity in a prison, or forcible restraint with shackles. The term usually applies to one put on trial or serving a prison sentence in prison.

History[]

"How particular do you want me to be, Mr. Beckett? There are men of every stripe wandering the stews of every major city. And of course there are men in prisons whose fines could be paid, thus making them available to us―and beholden to us."
"As long as they're good shots and can follow orders, I don't care what their relationship with the authorities is, Mr. Mercer. Prisoners are fine.
"
Ian Mercer and Cutler Beckett, while organizing an expedition to Kerma[src]

When the East India Trading Company Director for West Africa Cutler Beckett and his henchman Ian Mercer organized a private army to attack the island of Kerma, Mercer said he could recruit the inmates in prisons in various cities.[1] A few months later, Beckett's fleet captured the Wicked Wench, an EITC merchant ship whose captain, Jack Sparrow, decided to turn to a life of piracy. Sparrow was locked in the brig aboard the brig Sentinel, the EITC's patrol and defensive vessel for West Africa. As the Sentinel sailed back to Calabar, Corporal Andrews, the marine who locked Sparrow in the cell, commented that Jack was the politest prisoner he had ever locked up.[2] After the ship returned to Calabar, the EITC officials threw Jack into the local prison. Thirty-five days later, Jack's First Mate Robert Greene was also thrown into the cell. Fifty-three days after his imprisonment, Sparrow and Greene were taken out of the jail.[3]

The notorious pirate Bartholomew Roberts had looted as many ships and took as many prisoners as any of his contemporaries,[4] but he was reported to have been humane to his prisoners and never forced anyone to serve on his ship against his will.[5]

CotBPJackFirstEscapeFromTheNavy

Captain Jack Sparrow was imprisoned many times, but keeping him captive was easier said than done.

Within the thirteen years after Captain Jack Sparrow returned to a pirate's life, with the EITC merchant vessel Wicked Wench rechristened as the pirate ship Black Pearl, he had an enemy at every port and was imprisoned many times, but keeping him captive was easier said than done. After his capture by Commodore James Norrington of the British Royal Navy at Port Royal, Sparrow was given a room inside Port Royal's prison looking out across Port Royal bay, though prison bars spoiled the view. Sparrow thought about his appointment with the gallows, but he did not give up hope as he had cheated the hangman before, while the prisoners in a nearby cell were desperate to avoid the hangman by trying to temp the Prison Dog with the keys. As Sparrow's criminal companions escape through a hole in their prison cell, created by a cannonball from a pirate attack which set them free, they sympathize with Sparrow, still locked inside. After the battle at Isla de Muerta, Jack kept his appointment with the hangman at Fort Charles, with the prisoner moments away from death, only for Will to dash to the rescue,[6][7] and Sparrow escaping Port Royal aboard the Black Pearl.[8]

The Governor of Lusee ruled the Isle of Lusee with an iron fist, frequently throwing innocent men into prison and confiscating their gold. When Jack Sparrow and Will Turner arrived on the island, they led the citizens of Lusee into a revolution which overthrow the governor and freed all the prisoners.[9] About a year after Jack Sparrow's escape from Port Royal aboard the Black Pearl, his continued freedom drew the attention of the East India Trading Company, and Turkish corsairs were hired to capture him. Knowing he was running out of time before his debt to Davy Jones needed to be paid, Sparrow purposely allowed himself to be captured by the corsairs off the Canary Islands. He was taken to the Turkish Prison on the Mediterranean Sea where he endeavored to obtain information that could help solve his impending dilemma.[10] Nobody escaped from a Turkish prison alive, so Sparrow sneaked inside a coffin to get out. The guards dropped the dead prisoners from a clifftop and the falling tide carried the caskets out to sea. Something stirred within one of the bobbing boxes. Jack popped up and borrowed a handy oar from his fellow passenger—a bony oar from a rotting hip, which lasted long enough to paddle him as far as the Black Pearl.[6][11][12][13]

Following the arrival of the East India Trading Company troops led by Lord Cutler Beckett, both Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann was taken prisoner on their own wedding day.[14][13]

Behind the scenes[]

"Jack Sparrow! It will be an honor to have you as a prisoner on my ship."
"I've stayed in all the best.
"
Mercer and Jack Sparrow[src] (original screenplay)

Prisoners were first identified in the soundtrack for Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, which featured the first appearance of pirate inmates that were imprisoned in Puerto Dorado of Isla Tesoro.[15] The term "prisoner" first appears in the souvenir book,[5] while "inmate" first appear in the 2005 book Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by Jason Surrell.[16]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's original screenplay draft of At World's End, Mercer would tell Jack Sparrow it would be an honor to have him as a prisoner on his ship.[17]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

External links[]

Notes and references[]

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